I am going to see a good friend's band play at a little bar tonight, and would like to get some decent pics. I surfed through the concert thread to get some clues as to what lens I should use--I will be committing to just one as I don't want to change lenses in the bar. Quite a few of my favorite posts in this thread were taken with legacy glass.

I was going to use my Oly 45/1.8, but seeing these threads I'm thinking the Rokkor 58/1.4 might be a better choice for what I think are 2 reasons: 1) the extra light, 2) in auto focus the 45 hunts in dim light. I know, I can put it on manual but if I'm going to manual focus shouldn't I go with the lens that allows more light?

Any thoughts and recommendations, not just on lenses, but camera settings as well, are appreciated.

I find that both are fairly limiting in a smaller bar. Most of mine are taken with the Viv28/2 or the P20. I have put on my Md45/2 before as well, but more for getting ahots from 15)20 ft away. I would stick both in a pocket and see what works. As far as settings, i tended to stick with manual, fto keep my shutter speed above 1/8. Spot metered to taste.

Depending on the venue and where you're sitting you may also want to disable AF Assist - those red spots the camera throws can annoy the heck out of people.

This can also tip the balance in favour of a manual lens (again it all depends on the venue, how mobile the band is, how mobile the audience is, the lighting and where you're located) - focus will be tougher at f1.4 and the images will be softer but you can just set your camera to burst mode and blast away without worrying too much about the AF. On the other hand if its all seated, fairly intimate (maybe jazz, folk, classical or blues?) the modern lens will come into its own.

Excellent choice .
You are not really getting more light though as it, myexample anyway, is much better stopped down, so effectively 2.0.
You are getting a little better subject isolation because of longer length maybe.
Frankly, i cant think of a really good objective reason to not use Olympus in this setting. I just dont have it. I also like the ability to change aperture and focus on the lens for video, which i also like to do at these events.

Here is how I use it in this environment - set lens to widest acceptable aperture, usually 1 setting down from max, set highest acceptable Iso - this can vary, I will usually start with 1600 and half press the shutter button to see what camera says about the shutter speed. Increase or decrease as lighting allows. I usually crank down the exp compensation to gain more shutter speed.
I usually set manual white balance in camera by using some white / black object on stage . I usually have a grey card in bag too and use that sometimes . That is often not enough and I oftenalso use tthe adjust function and change color balance across the axis as needed , usually toward more blue.
When ready to take the picture - adjust focus then adjust even finer by activating the enlargement mode. Once that is done , set to burst and wait for good moment. If lights wonder and vary it may be when light passes your target or gets brighter . May need to increase IsO and/or dial down exposure compensation as needed .
You may need to raise camera above head as needed if crowd is too tall .
If this is a band you be seen before, maybe you remember some cool moves they do , so you are well positioned / prepared to capture it. I remember I was once attending a gig and there was also a guy with a serious looking DSLR just sitting on the side not taking any pictures, which j thought was pretty weird. Well, at the end of the last song he jumped up stepped to front of stage and as the band members jumped together in sync with their instruments he captured them in midair. I was so jealous he must ve seen them before and made a mental note. the band used the pic as their cover on their website .
Good luck. Manual lenses are pretty fun to use even if final output is bettered by the modern lenses.

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